In one aspect this invention relates to cargo handling devices. More particularly this invention relates to sling structures useful in loading and unloading ground vehicle fuel tankers from ships.
As part of supplying military deployments it is necessary to provide fuel in large quantities to various locations. The supply chain depends on large, 5,000-gallon, tankers moved using large truck-tractors as the primary means of distributing fuel. The general procedure is to move the empty tankers in ships and unload the tanker at a destination port using a belly band or net configuration. The empty tanker is then filled with fuel and is ready for further transport. The entire unloading and filling operation requires approximately six hours per tanker from start to finish.
Obviously the time spent filling the tanker is lost time to the main mission. Further while the tanker is being filled it represents a vulnerable, stationary target for a substantial period of time making it easily destroyed or sabotaged. A third problem with the present procedure is it requires the transfer of large amounts of liquid hydrocarbons. This creates risk of spillage, hydrocarbon emissions, and fire. The alternative is removing the tanker from the ship in a loaded condition to avoid the transfer of fuel. This procedure when using belly bands or nets creates its own hazards since the loaded tankers are considerably heavier than the empty tanker and if the sling system fails the release of flammable, polluting hydrocarbons would be both large and virtually instantaneous.
It would be desirable from a military point of view to have a tanker unloading system that has the supporting portion of the unloading system as a part of the tanker structure. The system could be used to load and unload filled tankers from ships with a minimized amount of risk.